* * * *
It was not particularly difficult to find the place where the things of the Earth women had been moved. Muck tended to fill his hold compartment by compartment and there had been one only partly filled. It was not guarded. There was no need to guard it in space, but he had no doubt that Muck knew every single piece that was supposed to be there.
He took nothing. But he searched the area that held the things from Niki’s ship for anything that seemed like it might be what she would need. Frustration filled him when he had stayed as long as he dared and come up empty.
He debated the situation as he left again, trying to decide whether it would be more risky to take Niki to look or more risky to continue the search himself.
He finally decided, very reluctantly, that it might be safer all the way around to take Niki. It might only require one search and it might be a good deal faster.
He did not like it, but he felt a sense of urgency growing in him.
He would have felt better if he had known where that was coming from—if it was pure imagination based on nothing but wayward emotions, or based upon facts that he had noticed without being aware of it.
He could not afford to waste time in speculation, however.
Even if the Erth women could destroy the controllers it would take time, he knew, to destroy all of them and they could not move until that was done. He did not want to risk getting caught in the act or running out of time.
It was the one time he found the size of the Erth women a serious problem.
To be truthful, he had found them adorable, fascinating, and devastatingly attractive from the start—especially Niki.
But as much as he admired the tiny women, they were not going to pass as madrone warriors even if he put a suit on one.
And he felt like laughing when he had given Niki Jurik’s uniform to put on—Jurik’s because he was slightly smaller than he was himself.
It was just as dismaying to see that she looked like a child wearing her parent’s clothing, and the urge to laugh died a quick death.
“She will never pass if they get so much as a glimpse of her,” he said neutrally.
Kagan and Goran had crowded into their quarters with them to finalize the plan. Kagan grinned at her. “My poor baby. You were cheated out of much needed inches.”
Taurin struggled with the urge to laugh again. “She is adorable.”
“But she would not appreciate that. She thinks she is very big and very strong,” Kagan said mock solemn.
Taurin sobered. “She is very strong. She may be tiny, but she is a warrior with a warrior’s heart.” His.
“She has mine,” Kagan said soberly. “You will give your life to protect her.”
It was a statement not a question. Taurin had mixed feelings about it—resentment being the strongest. “Yes. I will hope it does not come to that, because she is unlikely to live if I die protecting her.”
“That is not at all comforting,” Kagan said dryly. “Can you not think of a way to die and protect her from harm?”
Taurin sent him a look, and then dismissed him and moved to help Niki to tuck in the surplus fabric. At least the uniform was the right color and maybe, in the dimness, if no one looked very closely, it wouldn’t be noticed that she was a full head and more shorter than any madrone warrior. He caught her face in one hand and made her look at him. “Niki stay bery close. Unerstan?”
Not very well, she thought dryly, but it sounded like he was saying ‘stick close to me’. She nodded a little jerkily. “Like glue. I swear.”
He frowned because he did not have a clue of what she meant, but it sounded like acquiescence and he was satisfied. At least as much as he could be.
He would be more satisfied to leave her with Kagan.
“We go now.” He glanced at Kagan. “Find the women. If we come with the tools, I want them ready to start.”
Kagan and Goran nodded and moved toward the door. Kagan hesitated when he reached it, though, and turned back. Snatching Niki off her feet, he enveloped her in a bear hug and kissed her thoroughly enough to leave her weak and disoriented when he set her down again.
Taurin glared at him.
Kagan made a rude gesture at him that he had learned from the Erth women.
Taurin narrowed his eyes and returned the gesture.
Male bonding, Niki thought, charmed.
When they’d gone, Taurin looked her over and helped her adjust the suit again. “I would kiss you myself, but I do not want a taste of that bastard,” he muttered, taking her hand and leading her to the door. He paused there, wrestling with it, and finally scooped her up and kissed her with far more heat than Kagan had. Pleased with himself when he saw his kiss had had the desired effect, he rolled the sleeves up again, opened the door, and left with her.
He had to slow his steps despite his anxiousness to get the task over with. She simply could not keep pace with him—particularly not when the legs of the suit kept falling down over her feet and tripping her. He discovered with some relief, though, that when he slowed the descent of the extra fabric also slowed—even though it wound the tension tighter and tighter in him the longer it took.
He was not armed and that bothered him more than it would have if he had not had Niki with him, but he knew that carrying his weapons would be a certain giveaway of his intentions if he was spotted.
He hoped neither of them would be, but he had no guarantee of anything.
There were sensors everywhere to pick up movement within the ship and also the eyes of the computer. He thought that he had found all of them and worked out a route that would avoid them, but he would only be certain when and if they made it back in one piece.
He was slightly relieved when they made it to the holding area without challenge. Leading Niki inside, he showed her the spot where their things were and then left her to search while he went to watch for trouble.
Niki stared at the things they had brought with them when they had started their journey and struggled with the anger and the sense of hopelessness and defeat that threatened her calm. It was their stuff. Theirs, damn it! Meant for their families!
She fought to push her resentment to the back of her mind, took deep, slow breaths in search of calm, and then focused on finding the boxes Glenda and Jackie had described. Each of them had one so that was two chances to find them. Each box had been inside of a larger box of other tools so that gave her four possibilities. She searched as quickly as she felt like she could and still be efficient, starting with the things on the bottom. Most of that, however, seemed to be the machine parts for their project—disassembled vehicles, construction machines and manufacturing equipment. Mostly she just skimmed over the big stuff and then climbed up to the next level. That was primarily household furnishings. Supplies filled the third tier. She found building materials and hand tools on the fourth. She’d just spotted a box that looked like the one Jackie had described when Taurin came back and hissed at her. She popped her head up and stared at him in alarm. “Time go,” he said tightly. “You find?”
“I think. Just a second,” she said rushing off to look before he could stop her. She felt like blubbering with gratitude when she opened it and discovered it was the box. Rifling through it, she found the little box with the tools for working in tight spaces, opened it to look to be certain and then closed the big box and rushed back.
Taurin was waiting impatiently.
He held up his arms to her, clearly expecting her to jump.
Doubt and reluctance instantly assailed her, but she leapt to him before she could talk herself out of it.
Thankfully, he caught her and then whisked her behind one of the racks.
They’d barely taken cover when a pair of lizard guards came in to the area and began a walk from end to end.
Taurin clearly did not want to put her down, but he finally, reluctantly did. Taking her hand, watching the progress of the guards, he led her carefully around the obstacles in the room until they reac
hed the door.
Niki realized at the same time he did that they would have to risk exposure to go out, but Taurin was wearing his communicator.
He turned it on, listening for several moments, and then led her out of the door at a quick dash and across the open area beyond and then through a door. He stopped there and listened again and then retraced their route of before.
Niki was so weak with relief by the time they’d gotten back to an area she was familiar with, she almost wished Taurin would insist on carrying her.
She was ready to collapse by the time they got to his quarters.
Which they discovered was packed even before they went in.
Niki handed over the tool set and then moved to the closest bunk to sit down before she passed out.
Goran and then Jurik joined her leaving the floor space clear for Taurin, Kagan and the two engineers.
They started with Kagan. One held a small flashlight while the other worked to remove the cover from the thing. When they’d set it down they stared at it—for so long Niki was about ready to scream. “It has a transmitter/receiver—no surprise—except that I can recognize it. I wasn’t sure I could since it’s of alien origins.”
“Yeah. There’s a wire there,” Jackie added. “Receiver to that thing.”
“That might be the explosives—whatever they are,” Glenda responded.
Might? Oh my god, Niki thought.
“Yeah. I think you’re right. It would have to be. I don’t see a connection to anything else. And this is a closed circuit so we’d have to reroute it.”
Niki thought they must have studied it for a solid hour before they decided they understood it and how it worked and how to make it not work—without alerting the lizards. Basically, they’d have to reroute it to keep it from blowing up and by doing that the aliens should not know that it had been tampered with.
Glenda mopped the beads of sweat from her brow and scanned the group. “I think it’ll be better if everyone clears out before we start this.”
“If it blows a hole in the hull it isn’t going to matter where we are,” Niki said evenly.
Chapter Fourteen
“No time argue,” Taurin said grimly.
Niki narrowed her eyes at him. “No there isn’t. I’m staying.” She turned to the engineers. “One goes, one stays. Decide.”
Glenda volunteered to be first although Niki could see she was scared shitless.
On the other hand, she must be reasonably confident or she wouldn’t have immediately volunteered, Niki decided, ignoring the hollow feeling in the pit of her stomach.
Jackie left.
No one else moved.
After a moment’s hesitation, Glenda held up the flashlight. Niki stepped forward to hold it at the same time Kagan did. They grabbed it at the same time. Niki met his gaze. “I think, maybe, I’ll make her less nervous.”
Kagan flicked a glance at Glenda and finally released his hold.
None of them really thought it was going to make a hell of a lot of difference where they were in the room if it went off.
“Maybe the healers should step out?” Niki suggested.
Goran and Jurik both folded their arms and ignored the suggestion.
Releasing a heavy sigh, Niki focused on trying to keep the light steady and aimed at the spot Glenda was working on. Everything was miniaturized and tightly packed in. It took her several minutes to attach even one end of the bypass wire. Her hands were shaking as she tightened it in place and then tugged lightly to make sure it didn’t just slip off. Then she stopped and mopped the sweat off her face with her T-shirt, took several deep, slow breaths as if she was about to dive into a pool and then started working on attaching the other end.
The pliers slipped once and Niki thought they all sucked in a breath of terror. Glenda froze for several moments and then straightened away from Taurin to give herself a moment to recover.
“Almost there,” she said with forced cheerfulness before she leaned close and started again. It took twice as long to attach the second end of the wire and tighten it.
She stopped and calmed herself again and then took the wire cutters and very, very carefully snipped the wire connected to the piece she believed to be the explosive charge.
When she’d finished she wilted against the wall.
“Jackie should have a look at it and see if she believes it’s done—also so she knows how to do it.”
Kagan summoned Jackie in from the corridor. She took the flashlight from Niki’s shaking hand and studied Glenda’s work very carefully and finally stepped back. “I think that’s it. I’ll put the cover back on.”
“Think?” Niki asked weakly.
Jackie and Glenda exchanged a look. “This is alien technology,” Jackie said pointedly. “To the best of our knowledge, this will keep the lizards from knowing we’ve deactivated the controls and also prevent them from triggering it.”
Niki wasn’t happy, but she realized it was the best they could hope for.
Taurin still looked uneasy when he got up.
“Hopefully, it’s safe to move around like you normally do,” Glenda said helpfully.
Taurin favored her with a thin smile. “Tank you.”
Glenda blushed, looked like she was struggling with emotions and finally just nodded.
She went out while Jackie performed the same operation on Kagan.
Kagan left to round up four other engineers while both women rested. He only returned with two, but then they studied the work that Glenda and Jackie had done when they repeated the process on Jurik and Goran and professed an understanding and a willingness to work on the others.
Taurin decided they’d exposed themselves enough for the night and sent everyone to rest for a few hours before they started on anyone else.
Kagan and Goran took Niki with them, but it was clear they didn’t entirely trust the tampering. Kagan slept in the chair across the room from Niki instead of cuddling her like he generally did.
By alternating the following day, the women managed to get roughly a quarter of the devices deactivated but they only had one set of tools even though they managed to train six different engineers to perform the task.
Niki wanted at least one more set.
Taurin vetoed it. If they were caught, it would be over. As slow as it was, he thought it would be safer in the long run.
To keep tension to a minimum, and any suspicions the delizo might have, they kept to their routine of exercising and practicing their fighting techniques.
Niki let it go, but she wasn’t ready to sit back and cower and let them do all the fighting. They were going to do their part.
She’d found their weapons while she was searching the hold for the tools.
While the men were working out, she tagged the women that had been designated for colony security and they worked out their own plan to reach their weapons and launch an assault. She’d been careful to note everything on the way to the hold. She thought, hoped, she could lead the others back without running in to trouble.
When the day came, though, Niki discovered that Taurin had anticipated her. When all of the warriors had filed out, she discovered he had locked them in.
For a handful of minutes she was absolutely furious.
Then, as sanity returned, she realized she had some very good engineers and tools. She summoned them to figure out how to get the door open and settled to wait, wondering if they would be able to tell when the giants engaged the lizards.
It occurred to her when she thought about that that, possibly, Taurin’s intent had been to protect them from the lizards—if they circled around and tried to use them against the giants.
Not that she intended to let that deter her.
But it was good she thought of it.
She went back to the engineers and told them they’d need to be able to lock the door behind them when they left to protect the women staying behind.
Of course, it wasn’t going to protect them long if they
were determined to get in, but it would delay them.
She decided it was probably a good thing, anyway, since she would’ve run the risk of fouling Taurin’s plan if she’d left directly behind him. This way they could still sneak up on the lizards and attack and then her and the colony guard could get to their weapons and make sure the lizards didn’t outflank them.
To be on the safe side, they raided the room where the men kept their weapons and found the ones they had left behind—apparently daggers although they were big enough to be swords for the women. They’d left their shields, as well, and that gave Niki some bad moments. She passed them around to the women who would be staying to shield themselves from any fire from outside the room. At least it was something, and since her team was only thirty strong, they handed out as many daggers as they could find.
When the engineers were ready to open the door, they stood quietly for several moments, listening, and then opened it. The corridor, thankfully, was clear and Niki led the group along the route Taurin had taken her.
She was a little stunned and uneasy when they reached the storage room without any resistance, but she realized the war was being waged in the upper levels of the ship.
She hoped.
If they’d been wrong about disabling those devices it didn’t bear thinking on. Grabbing all of the weapons they’d brought with them for the colony, they backtracked until they found the access stairs she’d seen. Niki paused there and then asked for three volunteers to return to the common room with the weapons they didn’t need—hopefully—so that the colonists weren’t virtually defenseless.
When they’d left, Niki and her team set the weapons to the highest level considered safe for the ship’s integrity and hoped the alien vessel was at least that strong, and then led her team up until they reached a level where they could hear the battle. After listening at the door a moment, she snatched it open and surveyed the corridor in both directions.
“Clear!” she announced, stepping out and trying to determine which direction to take.
Alien Warriors: Invasion Page 13
